November 3, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS – Ancient Israel: The Old Testament in Its Social Context, edited by Philip F. Esler, provides an up-to-date assessment of the current state of social-scientific analysis of the Old Testament and brings together pathbreaking essays by an international group of biblical scholars on topics in major growth points of the field.

Contributors address foundational issues (the proper use of social-scientific models and a brief history of social-scientific analysis of the Old Testament; key themes (tribalism, polygymy, sacrifice, reciprocity, wealth, prophecy, barrenness); and selected biblical texts where social-scientific analysis provides new insights. The volume concludes with reflections on the future contributions of social-scientific criticism to biblical interpretation and interfaith dialogue.

Contributors include: Mario Aguilar, Marvin Chaney, Robert Coote, Zeba Crook, Richard E. DeMaris, Adriana Destro, John H. Elliott, Philip F. Esler, Lester Grabbe, Anselm Hagedorn, Jutta Jokiranta, Carolyn Leeb, Bruce J. Malina, Andrew Mayes, Dietmar Neufeld, Mauro Pesce, John Pilch, and Gary Stansell.

Philip F. Esler is Chief Executive of the U.K. Arts and Humanities Research Council, a position he is holding while on leave from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, where he is Professor Biblical Criticism. Among his publications are New Testament Theology: Communion and Community (Fortress Press, 2005), Conflict and Identity in Romans (Fortress Press, 2003), The Early Christian World (editor, 2000), Galatians (1998), and The Early Christians and Their Social Worlds (1994).

Ancient Israel: The Old Testament in Its Social Context, Philip F. Esler, editor, Format: Hardcover with jacket, 6" x 9," 384 pp, ISBN: 0-8006-3767-4, Price: $35.00, Publisher: Fortress Press.

To order Ancient Israel: The Old Testament in Its Social Context please call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.fortresspress.com/.

Fortress Press